Improved railroad-chair



Erica.

PATENT J. W. WETMORE, OF ERlE, PENNSYLVANIA.

IMPROVED RA Il ROAD-CHAIR.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent N0. 511,236, dated April 24, 1866.

To all whom t may concern..-

Be it known that I, J. W. WTMORE, of Erie, in the county of Erie and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a new and useful Railroad-Chair; and I do hereby declare that the following is a clear, full, and exact description of the construction .and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in whichi Figure l is a perspective view of the chair in its place on the rails; Fig..2, the bed-plate and main body of the chair, with one fixed lip or jaw to hold the rails and one to hold the wedge and movable jaw; Fig. 3, movable and adjustable jaws or lips of the chair; Fig. 4, wedge to hold and tighten the movablejaw in its place; Fig. 5, an end ofthe rail, showing one of the notches which catch on the fixed bolts of thejaws.

A B represent adjacent ends of the rails.

c c represent the iiXed jaw ofthe main body of the chair for holding the rail, made of iron from three-eighths to one-half inch thick.

d d represent heavy rivets, which perform the double office of holding the jaw to the bedplate and the rails in the chair.

' e j' represent outer jaws or lips of the bedplate. These support the wedge and movable jaw. About two -thirds of the plate of which this part ofthe chair is formed are thus turned up. They extend sufficiently over the wedge r r', Fig. 1, to prevent it from being lifted' up.

h represents one-third of the bed-plate, left to give breadth of bearing to the plate on the tie and to furnish a spike-holding at j; g g, recess in this plate of such length and breadth` as to receive a movable jaw, m m, Fig. 1. The recess will extend about one and three-fourths inch under the edge of the rail. The borders of this open space g g are about two inches wide. They must be of sufcient strength and stiffness to bear the strain of the wedge and the pressure of the tie under h, e, and f. t t', the middle section of the rivets. These are oblong, so as to bear the wear of the notches of the rail. j, 7c, and I, spike'holes by which to nail the chair to the tie. This plate, Fig. 2,

is constructed as follows: Abar is rolled with a single lip, as c c, and cut into pieces of suitablelengths.

These are heated, recess g g and e f turned up on a former.

Thejaws, Fig. 3, are constructed by rolling a bar of iron of this form and cutting oft' these pieces; or sections of a hat bar are cut off and shaped on a former, the grain of the iron in this case ruiming round the edge of the rail. The length'and breadth of these jaws are such as to be admitted into the recess gg, Fig. 2. n, the under jaw, is made iat to fit the under side of the rail. thick part of the neck of the rail,as is also co, Fig. 2. q, the back side of these jaws or lips, is a round corner to iit into r rf, the roundcornered groove of the wedge, Fig. 4. fm m, as well as o c, reach the thick part of the web above the notches w, Fig. 5. r r', roundcorned groove of the wedge, Fig. 4. s u., a piece of sheet-iron, about one-eighth of an inch thick, of the length and breadth of the iiat out edge of the wedge u. At this end this piece of iron is riveted onto the wedge. s,the end ofthe sheet-iron attachment, which is bent out after the wedge is driven to its place, to serve as a key in keeping the wedge in place.

w, Fig. 5, shows the notches by which the bolts or rivets (l d, Figs. 2 and 3, catch and hold the rails in the chair.

The application of the chair is as follows:

ties and slid to its place on the tie, usually the jaw c c being outside. The movable jaws, Fig. 3, are placed in the recess g g, the wedge driven to its place, and the end s bent out to serve as a key. lf the chair becomes loose the wedge is driven up and the end s bent out again.

Some of the different applications of my irnprovement are as follows: The jaw o c, Fig. 2, may be rolled on the bar, as Fig. 2 shows, or a plain flat bar may be rolled of a width equal to the length of the chair. The pieces would then be cut off and formed by bending at 1c Z- not welded, as c c is shown to be, but depending for their strength on the rivets d cl. The jaw, Fig. 3, may also be constructed by making the rivets part of it, and not put in subsequently. The wedge may be constructed solid, and the keying-slip s produced by slitting the wedge up to t, Fig. 4; or the piece s u, Fig. 4, may be shorter and set iu a shoulder about the rivet and spike holes punched out, and jaws m, the upper jaw, is curved to t the l Part Fig. 2 isplaced on a rail between the at the point t and riveted. The edges of the web of the rail may be pared off', as shown at a: x, Fig. 5, or be left untrimmed. The trimming is not material to the success of the p'rinciple of my device when the rivets dfi and o p, Figs. 2 and 8, are used.

What l claim as my invention, and desire to secureby Letters Patent, is-

A railroad-chair constructed of e bed-piece. Fig'. 2, which has onejanv to hold the rail and one in two parts to vhold a Wedge, and which has also a recess, g g, in which the jaws, Fig- 3, are applied to the rail and held in place by the wedge,witl1 its key s and groove W' r', both the fixed and adjustable jaws being" held by rivets passing through the notches of the rails, all substantially as described.

J; W. WETMORE.

Witnesses F. GURLZE, GEO. W; BARTON. 

